F/A-18 Hornet

A United States military fighter-attack aircraft, its F/A designation standing for fighter attack, flown by pilots including David Fravor and Ryan Graves and involved in the 2004 USS Nimitz UAP encounter.

United States Navy (USN) · Fighter-attack aircraft

The F/A-18 Hornet is a fighter-attack aircraft; its designation, “F/A”, stands for fighter attack.¹ Ryan Graves, a former United States Navy (USN) pilot, flew the F/A-18 Hornet during a decade of service that included two deployments, in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve.²

David Fravor moved to the F/A-18 Hornet after flying the A-6 Intruder, a bomber, and had to learn dogfighting for the first time as part of the Hornet’s fighter-attack mission, having lacked significant air-to-air combat experience beforehand.³ Fravor said that the A-6 Intruder could travel considerably further on its fuel than the F/A-18 Hornet.⁴ Legacy F/A-18 Hornet aircraft carry less fuel than the F/A-18F Super Hornet.⁵ Fravor continued to fly single-seat F/A-18 Hornets until the end of 2001.⁶

During the 2004 USS Nimitz UAP encounter on 2004-11-14, Fravor’s F/A-18 Hornet fire-control radar never picked up the object later referred to as the Tic Tac.⁷ His wingman’s aircraft radar briefly locked onto the object before it jammed the radar and the lock was lost, prompting the pilot to switch to the targeting pod.⁸ The object took evasive manoeuvres to maintain distance from Fravor’s closing F/A-18F Super Hornet, showing no difficulty keeping pace with the aircraft.⁹ Fravor’s aircraft was not armed during the encounter, and he never felt threatened.¹⁰ He estimated the object’s length at about 12 metres, drawing on 16 years of experience flying against other aircraft and comparing its size to that of an F/A-18 Hornet.¹¹ Other witnesses who observed the object returned a consistent estimate that it was about the size of an F/A-18 Hornet.¹²

The F/A-18 Hornet can be fitted with an Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared Radar (ATFLIR) camera, which detects the heat signatures of a combatant aircraft.¹³

References (13)

The F/A designation stands for fighter attack.
“The F-A-18 is fighter attack.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 02:38:42.7-02:38:44.1
Ryan Graves was a former USN F/A-18 Hornet pilot with a decade of service including two deployments.
“My name is Ryan ''FOBS'' Graves and I am a former F–18 pilot with a decade of service in the U.S. Navy including two deployments in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:31727-31909 View the source record →
Fravor moved to the F/A-18 Hornet from the A-6 Intruder and had to learn dogfighting.
“So Tom, when I learned, because I come out of A6 and we really don't fight because it was a bomber. So I get in F-18s and I want to learn how to fight because it's a whole other side of the mission.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 02:38:32.4-02:38:40.8
Fravor said the A-6 Intruder could travel considerably further on its fuel than the F/A-18 Hornet.
“the A-6 could go quite a bit further distance-wise by fuel”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:21:07.3-00:21:10.6
Legacy F/A-18 Hornet aircraft carry less fuel than F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft.
“the little hornets the legacy hornets f-18s don't have as much gas as the super hornets”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 01:27:25.5-01:27:29.9
Fravor flew single-seat F/A-18 Hornets until the end of 2001.
“Then I went to single-seat F-18s, and I flew those all the way up until 2000 and, let me think, 2001, to the end of 2001.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 00:21:55.8-00:22:06.2
Fravor's F/A-18 Hornet fire-control radar never picked up the Tic Tac object.
“We never saw it on our radars. Our fire control radars never picked it up.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:124317-124388 View the source record →
The wingman's radar briefly locked onto the object before losing the lock, prompting a switch to the targeting pod.
“The other airplane that took the video did get it on a radar. As soon as it tried to lock it, it jammed the radar, spit the lock and he rapidly switched over to the targeting pod, which you can do in the F–18.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:124393-124599 View the source record →
The object took evasive manoeuvres to maintain distance from Fravor's closing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
“and it began to take evasive maneuvers to counter and maintain distance between his aircraft that was closing in, by the way, an F-18 at the time, Super Hornet, one of the most premier aircraft on the planet at the time, and this thing had no problem keeping pace.”
The UFO Phenomenon | Full Documentary 2021 | 7NEWS Spotlight 00:16:02.8-00:16:16.3
Fravor's aircraft was not armed during the encounter, and he never felt threatened.
“was it armed? ... No, and never felt threatened at all.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:125843-125909 View the source record →
Fravor estimated the object's length at about 12 metres, comparing it to the size of an F/A-18 Hornet.
“How did you know it was about 40 feet long? I go, okay, so 16 years flying against other airplanes, know what stuff looks like... so that's that's why i said 40 feet because it's about hornet size”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 02:31:43.9-02:31:55.9
Other witnesses returned a consistent estimate that the object was about the size of an F/A-18 Hornet.
“no, it was, and everyone came back with the same thing. They're like, yeah, it was about the size of a hornet.”
David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122 02:32:35.5-02:32:39.2
An ATFLIR camera on an F/A-18 Hornet detects the heat signatures of a combatant aircraft.
“an ATFLIR camera on an F/A-18 Hornet detects the heat signatures of a combatant aircraft”
Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs ch17:3008-3088 View the source record →

F/A-18 Hornet

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